The Firefly Effect
by Kaz3 n0 Tsurug1
Summary: Max has visions of the CBI outbreak and Ellie mysteriously travels back in time.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._

* * *

"What are you doing, kiddo?"

"Holy shit." Ellie's precision tools clatter onto the desk and she quickly throws a greasy rag over the scattered parts. "Geez, Joel, ever heard of knocking?"

"I did, but didn't seem like you heard," Joel says with a shrug. "What're you working on?"

Ellie sweeps everything on her desk into a drawer and locks it up. "Just crafting. And don't you dare try to shiv this drawer. I'll know it's you."

Joel raises his hands in defense. "Okay."

"Swear to me," Ellie demands.

"I swear," he says with a chuckle.

"Okay," Ellie says and softens her voice. "So, did you need something?"

Joel reaches behind to scratch the back of his head. "Well, it looks like the meat we had stored went bad because the generator for the freezer broke, so I figured you'd be interested in a hunting trip."

Ellie's eyes dart over to the Samick hunting bow hanging on her wall. Typically she'd be the first in line to go hunting, but she was really hoping to finish fixing Joel's watch for his birthday.

"What do you say, kiddo?"

Ellie rubs her nose absentmindedly in thought. With three days left till Joel's birthday, though, she figures she still has time. "Sure, I'm down."

"Great. Jake will be waiting for you at the gate," Joel says and turns to leave Ellie's room.

"What? Jake?" Ellie protests.

Joel turns back around to face Ellie. "Now, Ellie, you know the rules. Nobody goes out alone."

"Right, but why Jake?"

"Because he volunteered to go with you," Joel says frankly.

Ellie may be close to voting age, but she can still roll her eyes in disgust as well as any teenager. "Of course he did," she mutters.

"You know he likes you."

"Yeah. No shit."

Joel lets out a small laugh and shakes his head.

"It's not funny," Ellie sulks. Her expression brings out the innocence Joel remembers from when Ellie first came into his life three years ago.

"Listen, I know you're not interested in Jake, but do me a favor and make sure you both come back alive?"

"Fine," Ellie sighs, but both she and Joel exchange a knowing smirk. They had only been in Oregon for a couple months since the Jackson County settlement got overrun with Infected, but they and everyone else who managed to escape proved to be far better at surviving than the residents of the Tillamook County settlement. "But why aren't you going with me this time?"

"This place ain't like Tommy's dam, so Tommy and I are helping with improving security. Can't let what happened in Jackson County happen here too," Joel answers grimly. "So you be careful out there, you hear? You know the drill."

"Got it."

Joel nods and leaves Ellie to it.

Before leaving her room, Ellie does a quick inventory check of her backpack. She's got her switchblade, which she transfers to the back pocket of her jeans, her walkman, her pistol (fully loaded) for emergencies, a few nail bombs, and some rags and alcohol — in case Jake gets himself hurt. Finally she grabs her bow and arrows and heads out the door.

To get to the gate Ellie walks across the compound that was formerly a distribution center. The small office trailer she leaves behind is one of many that have been converted to housing units. Joel's trailer is directly adjacent to her's, but smaller. He let her have the bigger one. Ellie glances up at the sky and notices some gray clouds in the distance. Aside from that, the air is brisk and refreshing and she can catch the scent of the sea. It reminds her of Boston, but without the stench of the slums. They are far from the big cities — whatever is left of them — and the only thing separating the survivors from the outside world is a chain-link fence, which is why Joel and Tommy had come up with a plan to place a barricade lined with stakes and barbed wire around the perimeter. It's a wonder this settlement had managed to slip under the radar from bandits and Infected alike for this long.

Jake waves to Ellie as she approaches the gate. He's the same age as Ellie but his scruffy beard makes him appear older. As Ellie gets closer, though, she notices his beard is trimmed and he looks a little too cleaned up for a hunting excursion. She's quite the opposite on the other hand. Her hair is in a haphazard ponytail and she can feel traces of WD-40 grease smeared on her face from tinkering with Joel's watch earlier. Does Jake think this is a date? Well, Ellie thinks he has a better chance getting up close and personal with a clicker. It's not that Jake isn't attractive, he's actually pretty good looking — and cleans up nicely. It had been obvious from the moment they arrived at Tillamook County that Jake had a crush on her. Ellie had to admit it was nice to finally know someone around her age, but she just wasn't interested in him like that. Ellie is nowhere near as glamorous as the models she's seen on dilapidated billboards and store windows, but she still considers herself at least above average, and she has to wonder if the fact that she's the only girl his age influences his interest in her. She understands loneliness, and certain needs for that matter, but that's no excuse for desperation. As annoying as it is, at least he's harmless and Ellie will just continue ignoring his hints.

"Hey, Ellie!" Jake greets her.

"Hey," Ellie says in return but doesn't stop walking. "Let's try to make this quick. There are some dark clouds ahead."

"Oh, yeah. Right down to business," Jake agrees and quickly falls in line beside her. He's also got his backpack and he's equipped with a hunting rifle, but it's more for caution than actual hunting. Stealth is the name of the game whenever anyone ventures out. No need to be alerting any nearby infected or bandits of their whereabouts. "I hope we find something. Not looking forward to having beans for dinner."

"I don't really mind beans."

"Really? I think you and Frank are the only ones who actually like those beans."

"Huh, guess we're meant to _bean_ together then."

Jake groans at the pun but also can't help laughing. "Wow, that was terrible."

"Thanks, I've _bean_ waiting to use that one."

"Ha. Ha. What else you got?"

"That's it. That's all I got." Ellie quickens her pace and trudges ahead.

Jake gets the hint and the two continue down the road till it joins a main road. Even though there haven't been any signs of bandits for months, they stick to the shoulder so they can take cover in the woods quickly if necessary. After just a little more than a mile, they leave the road and follow a trail into the forest. It's about another mile before they come across their first game sighting.

"I got this," Ellie calls it in a whisper and nocks an arrow. She estimates the rabbit to be about twenty yards out, so she adjusts her sight accordingly. With her left eye shut, her left hand brings her bow up and her right hand draws the string back in one fluid motion. She looks through the sight, adjusting her aim ever so slightly until the dot and string are aligned and covering the rabbit, then releases the arrow. The rabbit is thrown on its side as the arrow impales it and Ellie says, "Boosh!"

"Nice shot," says Jake.

"Thanks," Ellie says as she retrieves her prize. She pulls the arrow out from the rabbit and holds the rabbit up for examination. "Not much, but better than nothing."

Jake and Ellie continue their hike and after a few hours have only managed to add two more rabbits and a squirrel to their inventory by the time they reach the edge of the forest. Ahead of them the trees give way to an old brick building surrounded by tall overgrown grass. Across the building is a structure that appears to consist of stacked animal heads.

"Whoa," says Jake, standing at the foot of the totem pole.

Ellie follows the path across the yard, surveying the area. "Prescott Dormitory," she reads on a sign covered in dirt.

"Old school. Literally. Wanna check it out?"

Both Ellie and Jake know they should stick to their objective, but neither of them can deny their curiosity when it comes to exploring things before their time, before the cordyceps brain infection outbreak. It's one of their few shared interests.

"I mean, why not? You never know. We might find something useful," Ellie reasoned.

"And even if we don't, no one has to know."

"Well, I definitely won't be spilling the _beans_."

Jake shoots Ellie an unamused look.

"Okay, for real, that's all I got. Let's try this side entrance."

Although the exterior appears to be undisturbed, except for vines that have made their way up the facades and the grime that covers the windows, they approach the entrance cautiously, listening carefully for any clicking, groans, or anything that might sound like trouble. In fact, Ellie suspects if there are any Infected inside the building, they'd probably be bloaters by now, like the ones Joel encountered in the dorms at the University of Eastern Colorado.

"I don't hear anything," Jake reports.

"Me neither. Okay, I'm gonna try the door."

Jake shoulders the rifle and prepares to shoot anything that comes out the door. He, too, is aware that if an Infected emerges from within, it'll be in too advanced of a stage for a stealth attack and will need to be put down fast. He's never encountered an advanced stage Infected, but he's heard stories.

Ellie grabs the door handle and pulls. There's a little resistance from the air pressure trapped inside, then the door gives way on hinges that protest loudly. Ellie clicks the flashlight attached to her backpack on and slowly peers inside with Jake still covering her. The air inside is stuffy but still — their arrival doesn't seem to have aroused any movement. Before her is a flight of stairs that leads down to the basement floor. Ellie picks up the brick laying by the door, probably the one used to prop it open during its glory days, and heaves it inside. The brick lands and topples down the stairs — still nothing. What a relief. Jake and Ellie let the breaths they've been holding out and Jake lowers his rifle.

"Guess we're good," says Ellie. "Here, you hold the door. I'm gonna get that brick back."

Jake does as he's told and waits for Ellie to prop the door open. They certainly don't want to accidentally get locked in. They could probably easily blast their way through, but why not just save themselves the trouble and the ammo.

With brick in place, Jake also turns his flashlight on and the two make their way inside. The stairs lead to another door that opens easily and they find themselves in a short corridor. Judging by all the dick graffiti and crude jokes scrawled all over the posters on the walls, they can assume this was the boys' floor. While Jake is trying to make out some of the graffiti by the door, Ellie turns the corner ahead and gasps.

"Spores!"

"Shit," Jake says, swinging his backpack around to whip out his mask.

Thanks to her immunity, Ellie doesn't need a mask and is unaffected, but she still covers her mouth anyway. She crouches down for a closer look and finds the source of the spores, an unfortunate victim of the infection covered in fungal growth, just a few feet away. The corpse is long decomposed beyond recognition, but the spores have spread abundantly over this section of the dorm. Jake crouches beside her, the mask making his breath annoyingly raspy.

"Of course there'd be spores here. It's the basement floor, and it's boys. The two nastiest things ever," Ellie remarks.

"Hey, I'm actually a pretty tidy person."

Ellie ignores Jake's comment and shines her flashlight down the hall. Jake does the same and his beam lands on fungus sprouting from beneath the dorm room doors further down the hall.

"They must have tried to quarantine themselves," Jake guesses.

"Let's go back and try that main entrance."

They retrace their steps and firmly close the doors behind them, then once outside Ellie takes her knife out and carves into the door, "SPORES INSIDE." They cross the yard to the other entrance and take the same precautions before opening the door. This time the door swings open, albeit on creaky hinges, and the daylight spills in, revealing another short corridor similar to the one on the boys' floor. Again, Ellie throws the brick inside and it bounces off the wall at the far end where the dorm splits into two wings. Fortunately the result is the same — nothing but the sound of her own heart pounding in her ears. No matter how many times Ellie has encountered the Infected, she doesn't think there'll ever come a time when she's not still scared.

"I got it this time," Jake, still masked, says and steps inside to retrieve the brick. If there are more spores, he might as well put his mask to use since he's already got it on. Once at the end of the corridor, Jake points his flashlight down both wings of the hall. Seeing practically no graffiti, and more importantly no signs of fungal growth, he takes his mask off. "No spores here," he shouts and picks up the brick. "That makes girls not only tidier, but also smarter than boys."

"Obviously. How'd you finally figure that out?" Ellie asks, taking the brick from Jake and wedging it into the door.

"They got the hell outta here alive when the infection broke out, unlike those guys we found."

"Just 'cuz they're not here doesn't mean they're not dead."

"True. If they were placed in the Portland QZ, they're probably most likely dead."

"Is that where you were before?"

"No, my family was in Seattle. But Frank came from Portland. He said the infection got in and the military sealed off the exits to try to contain it. The only reason why he didn't get trapped in the zone was because he had snuck out to harvest his weed."

"Shit, that sucks for Portland."

Jake and Ellie advance into the dorm and decide to search the left wing first. They try each door they pass, Ellie on the right side and Jake on the left side, but to their dismay, they're all locked. The door at the end of the hall, however, is not locked. Through the door, the dorm splits into two sections.

"I'll take this side," Ellie says, heading to the right.

"Okay, I'll see what's in here," Jake says, going the other way.

Ellie finds herself in a room that she presumes must've been a sort of mini kitchen. There's a counter that runs along the wall on the right side of the room and a broken vending machine that's already been looted nestled in the back left corner niche. A rectangular brown stain on the counter indicates a microwave probably once inhabited that spot. The floor is littered with trash that spilled out from a trash bin that's been knocked over. Ellie rummages through the trash with her foot, kicking around wrappers, crushed aluminum cans and plastic bottles, old magazines, and copies of a newspaper called the Blackwell Totem. Flipping over one such newspaper uncovers a charred black notebook with stickers all over the cover. Intrigued, Ellie picks up the notebook and flips it open. It appears to be a journal, judging by the first few pages. Most of the pages are burnt off or ruined due to water damage, probably from putting out the fire that was apparently consuming the notebook, but from what Ellie can make out, the owner seemed pretty excited about getting into Blackwell Academy. Flipping towards the back, Ellie finds numerous photos that are also severely damaged, but some have managed to survive. One of the surviving photos Ellie is particularly drawn to, though slightly warped and discolored, is of a lighthouse.

"Hey, Ellie! Come look at this!" Jake shouts from the other room.

Ellie shoves the journal into her backpack to look at later back home and heads over to Jake. The room he's in has a TV, a small round table with chairs, and two couches. On one wall hangs a banner that says "GO BIGFOOTS!" Jake is crouched down in front of the TV and he's pulling out DVD cases from the TV stand.

"More movies for movie night!" he exclaims excitedly.

"Nice!"

Jake spreads the DVDs out on the floor for Ellie to see. "Have you seen any of these?"

"Oh! _Back to the Future_! I love that one!"

"Yeah? What's it about?"

"This kid that travels through time in a car."

"Cool. What about this one, _Blade Runner_? It sounds interesting."

"Nope, haven't seen that one," Ellie picks up the movie and skims the summary on the back, "but it does sound interesting."

"You like sci-fi, huh."

"I think it's pretty cool, yeah."

"Then maybe you'd be interested in this one, too." Jake hands Ellie a DVD titled _Final Fantasy: Spirits Within_.

"Hmm. Yeah, I'd watch it," she concludes after looking over the DVD.

Outside a distant rumble interrupts Jake and Ellie's discussion.

"Shit. I guess that's our cue to head back," Jake says.

Ellie helps him gather up the DVDs and puts them into his backpack, then the two move out. It's much darker outside than when they first entered the dorm and the wind has picked up, bringing the storm clouds right over to them. Ellie kicks the brick out from the door and closes it shut once Jake goes through. They start back towards the totem pole and are about to head into the woods when a twig snaps behind them.

Both Ellie and Jake quickly duck into the tall grass and remain still. After a moment, another twig snaps. Jake starts to bring up his rifle but Ellie shakes her head. If they can let whatever is out there pass by without noticing them, the better. They wait for a while longer, listening, but the only sound now are the trees rustling in the wind. Quietly, Ellie rises up from her position slowly until she can see just over the grass. Her eyes widen and she ducks back down.

Her mouth forms the words, "It's a deer!" and she reaches for an arrow and nocks it onto the string.

Now both Ellie and Jake are rising up slowly, Ellie with her bow drawn. The deer is sniffing the ground and shows no sign that it is aware of being targeted. Ellie takes her aim, the muscles in her upper back flexed, and lets the arrow fly.

Just as lightning flashes above them.

The deer starts and as a result, the arrow misses its mark, but it still pierces the deer right above its front leg.

"Shit!" Ellie curses and runs after the deer as it sprints away.

"Ellie, forget it! We gotta get back!"

"Just because I don't mind beans doesn't mean I wouldn't rather have some deer meat!"

"The storm is about to be right on top of us!"

"You can either help me bring this deer home or you can explain to Joel how you left me out here alone!"

"Ellie!"

Thunder drowns out Jake's voice and by now Ellie is almost out of sight. Jake has to hurry to catch up to her because truth be told, he'd be better off dead than coming back home without Ellie. Joel said so himself when Jake volunteered to go hunting. But more importantly, how would he prove himself to Ellie if he couldn't keep up with her? Speaking of whom, he's lost sight of her, and now torrential rain is pouring down, making visibility more difficult. But she can't be too far ahead of him. He hopes, at least.

The blood trail from the deer is quickly washing away, but because of its injury, it's not long before the deer's flight drags down to a laborious limp. Keeping just enough distance from the deer, Ellie stalks the deer through a town long forgotten and reclaimed by Mother Nature for several blocks, but she can't get a clear shot. Eventually the deer leads Ellie up a wooded hill, where it finally succumbs to the wound. Ellie again readies her bow and this time her shot is clean, putting the deer out of its misery.

Lightning flashes again and it's Ellie who jumps because it seems to have struck something close by, so close that the hair on Ellie's arm is standing on end from the electricity in the air despite being drenched to the bone. Ellie looks up into the canopy as singed pine needles fall from the tip of a tree that now resembles the burnt end of a matchstick. Beyond the tree, she notices a towering structure, one she recognizes instantly as the lighthouse in the photo she found. Maybe she and Jake could take shelter there till the storm passes.

"Ellie!"

Ellie turns around and sees Jake scrambling up the hill. "Jake! There's a lighthouse!"

"What?"

"Lighthouse!" Ellie yells, but lightning strikes again, immediately followed by an explosive thunderclap.

Jake shouts something but Ellie can't hear him, and before Ellie blacks out, the last thing she remembers is the thick creaking sound of snapping wood.

* * *

The sound of horns blaring stirs Max awake. She's on the bus to town, but there seems to be a traffic jam. Ah, the perks of living in a small town. When there's an accident, nobody is going anywhere. She could probably just get out and walk the rest of the way, seeing as they're close to the hospital.

Max gets up from her seat and starts walking to the front of the bus. "Hey, do you mind just letting me off here? I'll just walk," she says to the bus driver.

"Yeah, sure," the bus driver says and starts to reach for the door handle when they see a patient run out of the hospital covered in blood.

"What the hell?" the driver says aloud.

Other people start streaming out of the hospital with patients charging after them. One woman trips and falls to the ground, and a patient pounces on her. What happens next is unreal and Max can't believe her eyes.

"Oh my god," she says beneath her breath.

"Holy shit! Is he... eating her?"

Other passengers on the bus rush to the side windows to try to get a view of what's happening when a man appears at the door of the bus, frantically rapping on the glass with bloody hands.

"Hey! Let me in! Please, please, let me in!" he begs, but suddenly he's attacked as well and getting chunks of flesh torn from his neck.

Max backs away from the door in horror, too shocked to process what's going on.

The driver puts the bus into motion, not caring who or what is in the way, but other vehicles on the road are doing the same as people who appear rabid are attacking them. The bus collides with another truck and Max is knocked to the floor.

When Max opens her eyes, she finds herself in Ms. Grant's class. Ms. Grant is in the middle of a lecture on fungus, which elicits small snickers from the stoners in the back of the classroom every time Ms. Grant mentions mushrooms. Max looks at her hands and sees she's still a little shaken from the dream she just had, but what a relief it was just a dream. She figures this is what she gets for staying up late and watching too many of Warren's obscure zombie movies. Her eyes drift over to the clock. Lucky for her, the bell is about to ring. She makes a mental note not to forget to put Warren's flash drive in her bag so she can give it back to him the next time she sees him.

The bell frees the students from their desks and Max eagerly rushes outside. She's been slacking on taking pictures, but the storm from earlier has long passed and today is looking to be a perfect blue sky day and she plans on taking every bit of advantage of it. Also, now that there's the Everyday Heroes photo contest, the pressure is on, so she better snap to it. She laughs internally at herself. Okay, that was a lame pun. Good thing she's the only one who knows about it.

Around campus there are plenty of opportunities for photos. For example, Max thinks, the statue of good ol' founder Jeremiah Blackwell, standing prominently front and center, looks very becoming with that bird perched on top of his head. Max peers through the viewfinder of her Polaroid camera and takes the photo. The camera whirs and spits the photo out, then Max tucks it into her bag. Next Max comes across a squirrel inspecting some litter on the ground. She stoops down and takes a shot of this scene as well.

"Aw, nice try, but I don't think a trash digging rodent can be considered an Everyday Hero."

Max stands back up warily and faces the meanest bitch in school. "Can I help you, Victoria?"

"Yeah, you can move your lame hipster loser ass out of my way."

Max looks around at all the other paths Victoria could've taken, yet she deliberately chose the one she was on just to fuck with her. "You didn't have to come this way," she says and sarcastically takes a wide step to the side.

Victoria rolls her eyes. "I'll go whichever way I want," she says and shoulder-checks Max as she walks past.

It's infuriating how Victoria has this unfounded vendetta against her, but Max does nothing, like always. It's not worth it, she tells herself. Or maybe she just can't stand up for herself. Either way, Max decides she needs to get off campus for a bit. Victoria's toxicity has ruined her groove.

A trip to the lighthouse might do the trick. Max hasn't been there since before the move to Seattle and she bets she could capture some breathtaking shots, especially during the golden hour. For a moment Max considers walking there, but who is she kidding. With bus pass in hand, Max hurries to the bus stop just as the bus pulls up to exchange passengers. On the bus, she can't help but recall the strange dream she had in science class. She's had some pretty vivid dreams before, but something about this one still makes her feel uneasy. Max shrugs it off. At the end of the day, it's still just a dream. And zombies definitely aren't real.

When Max gets off at the lighthouse bus stop, nostalgia hits her hard as soon as she sees the trail across the street that leads into the woods and up to the lighthouse. Before she can begin to walk down memory lane, though, she's got to wait for the crosswalk signal, which is taking forever. She doesn't remember there being a traffic signal here before, but when two black cars race by she recalls how drivers ignored the speed limit in this area, and apparently still do. Just then, Max sees a girl emerge from the woods. She's walking backwards, looking back at the path like she's unsure where she came from. She doesn't even seem to be aware that she's about to walk right into the path of an oncoming red SUV.

"NO!" Max yells and takes a step forward with her right hand reached out for the girl, as if she could save her. As rubber screeches against the pavement, Max witnesses the girl's body fly through the air in slow motion and land several feet from the SUV, then something strange happens. The girl's body picks itself back up and flies backwards towards the SUV, which is also moving in reverse, then the girl runs back up the trail. Max blinks and finds herself left standing alone at the bus stop again.

 _Whoa! What the fuck…?_ Max thinks. _That poor girl got hit… I held up my hand… and then I was back here._

Two black cars race by again. But wait, again? Again as in, they somehow miraculously drove a circuit around Arcadia Bay in less than a minute? Or again, as in, time rewound and this is the second time Max is seeing these cars. Again.

Again?

Max shuts her eyes. _This is confusing._

When she opens her eyes, the girl is walking backwards down the trail. Again.

And that red SUV is speeding down the road. Again.

 _Shit, I must be crazy. I can't believe I'm about to do this,_ the thought flashes through Max's mind, but she extends her hand anyway and concentrates.

The red SUV is thrown in reverse, the girl runs back up the trail, and the two black cars race backwards.

 _Wowsers! I actually did it! I'm a human time machine!_ Max screams triumphantly in her head.

This time Max runs across the street as soon as the black cars zoom by, and right on cue the girl emerges from the trail.

"Hey!" Max calls out, reaching the other side just in time to prevent the girl from stepping onto the road in front of the SUV. She narrowly misses getting hit herself. Guess she didn't really think that through very well, but hey, they're both still alive.

The SUV blares its horn and Max throws both middle fingers up at it. Meanwhile the girl has spun around and is reaching for her back pocket when Max turns her attention to her.

"That was close," Max says. "You okay?"

The girls looks at Max in bewilderment.

Max regards the girl carefully. She looks like maybe she partied a little too hard the previous night. Max did remember hearing about how some of the students were going to sneak out for a bonfire at the lighthouse to welcome transfer students that arrived over the weekend. She never made it. "Um, rough night?"

The girl stares at Max as if she's lost her mind. "Aren't you worried those hunters will come back?" the girl asks.

"Hunters? Nah, that was just some prick." Max tries a different approach. "I'm Max," she says and holds out her hand.

The girl looks at Max's hand hesitantly, then shakes it with her own. "I'm Ellie."

* * *

 _A/N: The Prescott Dormitory is confusing af only because the game doesn't exactly match the floorplan. For the girls' floor, the game shows Max entering the dorm through an entrance that should be in that hall where the shower room is, but instead she ends up at the end of the hall where the (unaccessible in-game) TV lounge and vending sections are located. I thought okay, maybe the TV lounge/vending section is somehow somewhere between the entrance and that hallway, considering it's not even the same door, but when she exits through that same door at the end of the hall, you can already see the outside through the window portal. As for the boys' floor, Max and Chloe enter through the same "main" entrance (episode 4), yet end up on the end had they used the side entrance. Maybe it's assumed there are other ways through the dorms not shown in the floorplans, but I simplified it to side entrance is to boys' floor, front entrance is to girls' floor. Minor details, but I'm picky with details and try my best to get it right._


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._

* * *

" _Dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize how things are actually strange. Let me ask you a question. You, you never really remember the beginning of a dream do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what's going on."_

Ellie replays the scene from the movie _Inception_ in her head with her eyes closed. She can picture Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page's characters having this discussion in an outdoor cafe, but the event itself turns out to be a dream when DiCaprio asks Page, " _How did you get here?"_ It was another one of her favorite movies that she watched over and over again in Jackson County. And to be honest, she couldn't get enough of Ellen Page.

You never remember the beginning, but she does remember the beginning. She remembers everything. She was hunting with Jake, they got caught in the storm, she got knocked out, and then she woke up in the lighthouse. She doesn't remember how she got in the lighthouse, but she can only assume Jake dragged her in there. It was her idea to wait the storm out in there after all.

Ellie opens her eyes and the sight of a dorm room greets her. Her dorm room, apparently. Strangely enough, it's pretty much exactly how she'd personalize it. A _Savage Starlight_ movie poster adorns the wall next to her bed, and across the room on her bookshelf she can see all her _Savage Starlight_ comics and pun books. On the floor next to the pile of laundry by the closet is a watergun and a wolf man mask. _Riley_ , Ellie recalls as a pang of sadness hits her at the sight of the latter, but it gives her more reason to believe this has to be a dream because this room is basically constructed from memories from her subconscious, especially considering the fact that she's in the Prescott Dormitory, the same ancient fucking dorm she and Jake had just found. Sure, that's it. She's dreaming that she's living during a time when the CBI outbreak didn't exist. That explains why Max assumed she was one of the late transfer students that had just arrived at Blackwell Academy. Dreams just work out conveniently like that.

Max. Max is nice. It was really sweet of her to take Ellie back to campus after yesterday's incident and make sure she was okay. Ellie wonders how her mind conjured her up, but it's not like dreams aren't full of people you've never met in your life. Actually, now that she thinks about it, Max kind of looks like one of the characters on the _Blade Runner_ DVD Jake found. And as a matter of fact, Ellie thinks Max is pretty cute. It's not the first time she's become infatuated with someone in her dreams.

Ellie swings her legs out to sit up on her bed and pulls up her backpack. Everything she packed for the hunting excursion yesterday is still in there, but she has no idea what happened to her bow and arrows. Another reason this has to be a dream is she wouldn't lose one of her most prized possessions so easily.

"Okay, time to wake up for real," Ellie says to herself and picks up her switchblade, which she had placed on the nightstand next to the bed. The blade flicks out and she takes a few deep breaths. Her free hand opens and closes with each breath, and then she closes her hand around the blade. Ellie steels herself and draws the knife through her hand.

"Fuuuuuuuuck," Ellie whimpers. It hurts like hell. She thought this was how you wake yourself up from dreams. "Ah, shit!" Ellie drops her knife and dives into her backpack for the alcohol and rags. "Holy shit!" she hisses when the alcohol makes contact with her gash. She can feel the stinging pain in her teeth. "Well, that didn't work," she talks herself through as she wraps the rag around her hand in a makeshift bandage. She cradles her hand to her chest and falls back onto her bed.

"Now what?" she says out loud. Maybe she's in some, like, deep sleep. And if that's the case, Jake better not try to kiss her awake. Ellie cringes at the thought. She should just go back to the lighthouse. She doesn't know what to look for, but that's where this whole thing started. That's how she got here.

Ellie gets dressed, slips her switchblade back into her back pocket, and throws her backpack over her shoulder. The dorm is already bustling with commotion that Ellie drowns out by placing her walkman earbuds into her ears and pressing play. Ben E. King's voice floods her head with _Stand By Me_ and she heads out the door. Outside her room, "Welcome to Blackwell" is written on the whiteboard by her door, except the W in Blackwell is overwritten with an H so it says "BlackHell." Ellie wipes the board clean and writes "Endure and Survive."

Satisfied with her work, Ellie walks through the dormitory, recognizing that she's in the opposite wing that she and Jake didn't get a chance to explore. She stops at Max's room and knocks, but there's no answer. When there's still no response after a second try, Ellie steps back and bumps into someone behind her.

Ellie spins around and says, "Oh, my bad."

The girl she bumped into yanks her earbuds out and yells, "Watch where you're going, loser!"

"Hey, fuck off!" Ellie fires back.

"This side of the hall is my space. Stay over on the losers' side," the girl sneers and walks away.

Ellie watches the girl in disbelief till she goes into someone else's room down the hall, then looks at the girl's whiteboard. "Be the change you wish to see," it says. _Really?_ Ellie thinks, then erases the words and draws a hand with the middle finger sticking up. _Take that, bitch._

Ellie sticks her earbuds back into her ears and resumes listening to her music. Jackson 5 is now singing _I Want You Back_ and Ellie starts humming along as she turns the corner to leave the dorm.

Outside Max is sitting on a bench, but she gets up as soon as she sees Ellie come through the door.

"Hey, Ellie!"

Ellie's stomach suddenly tightens up. She pulls out her earbuds and says, "Max, I thought you were already gone. I went by your room and you weren't there."

"Oh, I headed out early so I wouldn't have to run into Victoria." In actuality, Max had already run into Victoria and it caused a most unpleasant morning, so she used her rewind powers to set a different course of action. It still boggles her mind that she has these powers, but it's proving to come in handy.

"Who's Victoria?"

"Only the most stuck-up bitch in the world."

Ellie hits the stop button on her walkman. "Ah, so that's Victoria. We've met," she says and proceeds to wrap her earbuds around her walkman.

Max's eyes widen. "Wowser, is that a walkman?"

Ellie arches an eyebrow at Max. "Um, yeah?"

"I didn't think anyone still had those! I mean, I thought cassette tapes were pretty much obsolete. What are you listening to?"

"A mixtape someone gave me," replies Ellie, stashing her walkman into her backpack.

"That's so retro."

Not knowing what to say, Ellie just smiles.

"Sorry, I'm really into that stuff. I use this retro instant camera to take photos." Max shows Ellie her Polaroid camera. "I don't know. I think it's cool," she says with a shrug.

"Oh, gotcha," Ellie goes along with it. "I just like collecting old stuff because they still work off the grid."

"You mean, like, when the power goes out during a blackout? Or when you're somewhere you can't get signal?"

"Uh, I'm thinking more like a post-apocalyptic scenario."

"Whoa," Max laughs, "that escalated quickly. You've got some frightening imagination."

"I guess," Ellie tries to laugh and absently rubs her nose. "Oh yeah, by the way, thanks for, uh, everything. You know, yesterday."

"Oh, no worries. I mean, I'm sure you would've found your way eventually."

"Yeah, everything just looked a little different. Haven't gotten my bearings yet, I guess."

"You'll get it in no time. It's kind of hard to get lost in a small town like Arcadia Bay.

"Cool, good to know 'cuz I'm gonna go back to the lighthouse."

"After school?"

"Uh, no. Now."

Max looks at Ellie in awe. "You just got here and you're already ditching?"

Ellie shrugs and says, "Yeah."

Max doesn't peg Ellie as the kind of person who ditches school. She may have had a rough start with missing her first day thanks to the bonfire all nighter, but attending Blackwell Academy typically means you take your education pretty seriously. The competition to get accepted alone is no joke. "Is everything okay?" Max asks warily.

The genuine concern on Max's face makes Ellie wonder what the big deal is, it being a dream and all, but then again, Max wouldn't know she's just part of a figment of Ellie's unconscious imagination. "Yeah, I just need to go back there. It's hard to explain."

"Hmm," Max nods thoughtfully. She understands if Ellie doesn't want to talk about it. They've only just made each other's acquaintances after all, but it never hurts to make a friend, or at least have someone to just be there when you're going through something. "I'll take you."

"Then won't you be ditching school?"

"Yeah, and I've never ditched before, so I have to admit I'm kinda nervous, but fuck it."

Ellie has to admit she's kinda nervous now too, not because she's ditching dream school, but because Max is coming with her. Her stomach seems to tighten even more. "Well, okay then."

"Okay. Let's go."

Ellie follows Max on the path that leads to the main campus grounds. It looks drastically different with the grass neatly cut and all the shrubbery well landscaped. As they pass the side entrance where Ellie had carved the warning about spores, she spots the very brick that she had used to prop the door open. Indeed, her subconscious had lots of new material to work with for this dream.

When they get to the main campus, Max sees an opportunity to impress Ellie and show her she's not such a loser. She points to a group of boys hanging out along the short brick wall that fences the school in. "There's Justin and his skater posse."

Ellie gets wind of a skunky aroma as they approach the boys, the kind she always smells around Frank's trailer back on the compound. She's never smoked pot before, nor has she had the desire to, but the smell is unmistakable.

"They're so cute doing their tricks," says Max before they get within earshot of the skaters. She doesn't catch Ellie rolling her eyes at that last comment. "Yo, Justin," she says to the boy with glasses wearing a red cap.

"Check out the Max. Come to thrash?" Justin asks.

"Thrash?" Max replies with uncertainty. "You mean stage diving or…"

Justin shakes his head incredulously. "You're such a poser. If you can't even name a simple noseslide or a tre flip, you should walk on."

 _Shit, you can't let Ellie see you like this_ , Max thinks and does a quick rewind. "Oh yeah. Bring it," she says more confidently.

"What's your first move gonna be?"

"Uh…" Max hesitates. "Jump?"

Justin shakes his head (again). "You're such a poser. If you can't even name a simple noseslide or a tre flip, you should walk on."

 _Ugh, Max, why do you suck?_ she asks herself and rewinds again. "I came to noseslide, but I'd love to see somebody do a 'tre flip!'"

Justin's face lights up. "Oh, sick, you're not a poser."

Max shrugs. "Nah, I just can't skate worth shit."

"Oh check it. We're gonna destroy some rails for you. What do you want to see?"

"Go for a 'tre flip.'"

Justin nods his approval. "Let's get Trevor all over that action."

Another boy who Ellie can only assume is Trevor kicks off on his skateboard and attempts to do the infamous "tre flip," but only to fail horribly. The end of Trevor's skateboard flips up all right, directly into his nuts, and he rolls on the ground grabbing his crotch. Just watching him moan and writhe in pain makes Ellie wince. She can't imagine how much that must hurt.

 _Damn, poor Trevor. Maybe he should stick with the noseslide,_ Max thinks and rewinds yet again. Third time's the charm, right? "I'd love to see… a noseslide," she tells Justin when he asks (again) what she wants to see.

"Let's get Trevor all over that action," Justin says (again).

This time Trevor slides the nose of his skateboard along the edge of a bench and lands the trick perfectly.

"Nice one!" Ellie cheers.

"Oh, this is Ellie, by the way," Max tells the skaters sheepishly. How rude of her not to do introductions first, but Ellie doesn't seem to mind.

"Nice to meet you," Ellie says in their general direction and high-fives Trevor. That's when Ellie notices the scar on Trevor's wrist. She's seen that scar before. There was that Firefly named Trevor whose hand she bit to escape from his hold in order to save Riley. She even stole his gun. Ellie looks more intently at Trevor while he receives high-fives from the other boys and realizes he is indeed the same Firefly Trevor, but younger. She can't believe it. If only she could tell Riley about this bizarre dream. She'd get a kick out of it.

"Dude," Justin calls Trevor's attention, "here comes Dana."

Ellie looks around curiously till Max points her chin at the girl coming from the dormitory grounds. She's got her hair tied back in a ponytail and walks with a pep in her step, which is no wonder since she's a cheerleader after all. And like most stereotypical cheerleaders, she's dating a football player, and they're both members of the popular kids' club. Unlike Victoria and the others, however, Dana is actually a decent person and gets along with everyone, regardless of their social status.

"Hey, Dana!" both Justin and Trevor say in unison.

Their synchrony makes Dana giggle and she tosses them a wave. "Hey, guys! Don't forget to deodorize."

Trevor erupts in laughter. "Dude, that rhymes!"

"Oh, shit, almost forgot," says Justin and searches his pockets.

"I got it, bro," Trevor says, pulling out a small bottle and spraying them both to mask the dank smell.

"Good lookin' out, bro."

"You guys are so baked," Max says. "Can you make it anymore obvious how bad you got it for Dana?"

"Dana is so chill. How can you not?" Justin replies.

"Hey, whatever happened to that other girl you were talking to?" Trevor asks Justin. The one who wanted to be a nurse."

"She moved to Boston," Justin says offhandedly, "but we keep in touch on Facebook."

Ellie feels another pang inside. She has no idea what Facebook is, but it was part of the photo booth where she and Riley took pictures on their last night together. "Hey, what exactly is Facebook?"

Her question is received by weird looks.

Ellie thinks quickly. "I'm an orphan. I was raised in a boarding school run by military. They were extremely strict and deprived us of all things fun."

"Damn, that's fucked up," Justin says.

"Yeah, we didn't even have internet connection," Ellie adds and hopes it makes sense. She has no idea what an internet is, but that's what it said on the photo booth screen.

"Must've been some kind of government social experiment," Trevor surmises.

"Don't worry, Ellie. You're probably better off without it," says Max.

"But if you decide to get on it anyway, add me," Justin says. "Justin Williams."

Surprise washes over Ellie's face. "Hey, my last name is Williams," she says.

"Whoa, you guys could be related," Trevor thinks out loud.

Ellie and Justin look at each other, then laugh.

"Doubt it," Ellie concludes.

"Hey, man, maybe you should lay off the pot a bit," Justin advises his friend.

"Both of you should," Max teases.

Ellie glances across campus and notices some faculty emerging from the school parking lot. If they were going to skip school, they should probably leave soon, or else faculty might spot them. "Um, Max? We should probably get going."

"Yeah, sure."

After the skaters and the girls exchange their farewells, Max and Ellie continue down the sidewalk. Max points out more people along the way and gives Ellie a brief rundown on their statuses from the jocks to the nerds to the self-proclaimed elite, also known as the Vortex Club. To Ellie, all these labels seem trivial, but one thing remains true: mean people suck.

"So, you think any of the guys here are cute?" Max asks.

"Um, I guess," Ellie replies, "but I actually never really had a crush on a guy."

"Max, get's over here," a voice interrupts them.

"And that would be Warren," Max states, leading Ellie to a bench where a boy is sitting like he's waiting for somebody. Max doesn't know Warren to hang out around campus before class. He's usually in his room downloading and watching movies and anime or putting in extra hours in the science lab. "Warren, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, nothing—waiting. For a call? I mean, I already took the call," Warren stammers. "Anyway, that drive-in is having a 70's 'Planet of the Apes' movie marathon. Let's 'Go Ape!'"

"Yes, that's exactly what I need. I love those old-school ape films," Max says with some enthusiasm. Finally, movies that are more mainstream.

Warren looks a little taken aback, then says, "Well, that was easier than I thought. Cool. I'll text you the info."

Beside Max, Ellie crosses her arms and shuffles around uncomfortably. Inside, her stomach is getting tighter and it's starting to affect her chest, like some kind of heartburn. There's also something else she's feeling that she can't quite explain. What's clear, though, is how Warren has a huge crush on Max and she just agreed to go on a date with him. "Hey, Max, you know what? If you'd rather just stay and chill with your friends, it's cool."

"Wait, Ellie."

"Really, it's cool. I'll be fine on my own."

 _You, dumbass_ , Max berates herself internally as Ellie walks away. The last thing she wanted to do was make Ellie feel left out, but in her effort to impress Ellie and make herself appear popular, she did just that. Max holds her hand up, brings Ellie back, and undoes her last decision.

"Let's 'Go Ape!'" exclaims Warren (again).

Max smiles apologetically. "No, I don't think I can concentrate on going out to the movies. I just feel like escaping," she says and discreetly winks at Ellie.

Warren sighs dejectedly. "Fine. Be a damned dirty human. I'll 'Go Ape' myself."

Relief washes over Ellie, more than she expected, but she maintains a stoic appearance as Max wraps up her conversation. While Max is giving Warren back his flash drive, Ellie sweeps her eyes around campus for more faculty, but only the students have grown in their numbers, each in their respective clique, aside from the loners.

From opposite ends of the lawn, Logan, the one Max pointed out as Dana's boyfriend, is throwing around a football with Zach, the football team quarterback. Zach lobs the ball long and Logan misjudges the trajectory, unable to arrive on target to receive it. The football sails past Logan by several yards and bounces around clumsily once it lands. It stops just a few feet short from Ellie, but too far for Logan to retrieve it without putting in some hustle.

"Hey! You mind?" Logan shouts across the lawn to Ellie.

Ellie goes to pick the football up and tosses it back to Logan.

"Appreciate it!"

"No problem!" Ellie shouts back, and just as she spins around to rejoin Max, she hears a mortified gasp behind her, but it's too late. She watches helplessly as Victoria's coffee erupts from her insulated tumbler mug and splatters down the front of Victoria's blouse.

Victoria looks down at her top, then slowly brings her eyes up at Ellie, her face red with rage. "What the hell?"

"Geez, my bad! At least you didn't get scalded."

"Are you kidding? Look at this…"

Ellie has seen worse stains, coffee not being one of them. "That stuff washes out. What's the big deal?"

"Do you know how much this fucking outfit cost? No way! No fucking way! Now I have to change my whole outfit!" Victoria fumes and rushes back to the dorms.

"You can change your outfit, but you can't change ugly!" Ellie calls after her, eliciting laughter from the jocks.

"Fuck you!"

Max grabs Ellie by the shoulder. "Ellie, what happened? You okay?"

Ellie shrugs, unmoved by the confrontation that just transpired. "I'm fine. What's Victoria's deal?"

Max sighs. "Who knows. Probably because you don't wear designer clothes, you have a sweet tattoo, and you have a badass scar over your eyebrow. As far as she's concerned, you're lowlife, but I dig your style."

Ellie looks away for a second and rubs her nose absently in an effort to deter the blush she feels rising in her face. "Oh. Uh, thanks?"

Max starts to feel a little warmth in her face as well. "Don't mention it."

Ellie clears her throat. "So, we going to the lighthouse or what?"

"Right. Let's go."

On the bus Ellie watches the world of Blackwell Academy disappear behind them. She feels like the whole morning had been taken out of a page of that diary she found in that ranch house by Tommy's dam three years ago. The hard life of a teenager. This really is all they had to worry about. Boys. Movies. Deciding which shirt goes with which skirt. It's bizarre. Ellie glances down at her own outfit of choice: an olive surplus field shirt with sleeves torn short over a plain t-shirt, black jeans with holes at the knees, and black Converse shoes. Comfortable, practical, and durable. She looks at her reflection on the window, focusing on the scar on her right eyebrow. It's just one of many she's acquired over the years in her fight for survival. Meanwhile the town of Arcadia Bay sweeps by outside the window, absent of the overgrowth and abandonment of every town Ellie has known. She passes her left hand over the tattoo covering her right forearm. If Max only knew the story of what was beneath the ink, she might not think it was so sweet.

After a short bus ride, Max and Ellie arrive at the lighthouse bus stop. They cross the road to the trail and begin the trek up to the lighthouse. Beams of late morning light pierce the woods and the chirping of birds fill the silence that's fallen between the pair. To Max, not much has really changed in five years. The same wooden sign points the direction to the lighthouse, the same horizontal wooden beams jut out from the dirt to form steps as the path inclines, and upon looking at the map of Arcadia Bay, the same red skull and crossbones marks a spot in the upper left corner.

 _Wowser, Chloe drew that to mark our treefort so we'd always be able to find each other in case of emergency_ , Max remembers.

Ellie makes a beeline to the lighthouse entrance, anxious to see what she'll find, or won't find. She gives the door handle a tug, but the door won't budge. She tries again with more force, but the door remains locked tight.

Ellie grunts in frustration and kicks the door. Defeated, she plops down on the nearby bench. Her frustration is short-lived though when her gaze rests on the view before her. From this overlook, she can see the beach and the town bustling with inhabitants, untouched by the outbreak. The atmosphere is so different compared to what she's used to, but that's what baffles her. She really had no idea what to expect when she got here, but it seems the longer she's in this dream, the more real it feels. But how can it be real?

Max, who has been taking her time to reach the lighthouse, finally catches up to Ellie. Every few steps she aims her camera, and once she finds the perfect angle she captures the image of the lighthouse. After slipping the photo into her bag, Max resumes pointing her camera around until the viewfinder centers on Ellie sitting on the bench. Max admires how the sunlight hits her face and thinks, _This would be a nice photo of Ellie framed by the sun…_

Max snaps the shot, and waits for the photo to develop, which for some reason seems to be taking more time than usual, but she's probably just being impatient. Finally the image of Ellie emerges from the gray slate and before Max knows it, a smile tugs at the corner of her lips. Max adds this photo into her bag with the rest and then takes a seat beside Ellie, who still hasn't said a word since they left Blackwell. Max knows what it's like to feel out of place, so she attempts some conversation.

"I used to come up here with my best friend all the time when we were kids and play pirates," says Max.

"Pirates, huh," says Ellie. She turns to face Max and is pleasantly surprised at how close Max is sitting next to her. Her stomach begins to fold again.

"Yeah."

"Did you know that 3.14% of sailors are Pi Rates?" Ellie asks with a straight face.

Max takes a moment to digest the information, then the pun finally sinks in and she laughs. "Good one."

Ellie smiles and says, "How about this: What is a pirate's favorite letter?"

"Oh. I know this one... Rrrrr…"

"Naw! 'Tis the C!"

Max laughs some more. "Clever."

"My best friend got me into puns. She always found the best pun books for me."

"You would've gotten along really well with my best friend. You and her could have a pun battle." Max's laughter tapers off. "Wish you guys had met each other… "

"Did something happen to her?" Ellie asks.

"I haven't talked to her since my family moved to Seattle. I meant to write her, but days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, then months into years. Now I'm back, but I'm not sure we're friends anymore."

"Oh. How many years has it been?"

"Five."

"You should talk to her. You never know if you might not get another chance."

Max catches Ellie's hand brush over her tattoo, but the change from light-hearted to solemn tone in Ellie's voice stops her from asking.

But Ellie can see the curiosity in Max's eyes. "It's been three years since my best friend got hurt and died."

"Oh, man. I'm sorry, Ellie."

"Don't be. We were somewhere we weren't supposed to be. I should've died with her, but..." Ellie trails off and looks at her right forearm. "But I survived," she finishes and offers Max a reassuring smile.

Max returns the smile and says, "Well, I'm glad, or else I would've missed out on meeting such a cool person. Here, let's take a selfie."

A selfie. At least that's one thing Ellie knows that seems to have made it through the outbreak. She and Riley had taken a selfie once. She keeps the photo under her pillow back home. The tight feeling in Ellie's stomach erupts into flutters when Max leans in close, close enough for Ellie to inhale the floral fragrance of Max's hair. It smells heavenly, and Ellie realizes she can't recall a dream where she was able to smell anything.

"Okay, ready?" Max holds her camera at arm's length and presses the button. The flash blinds her for a second, but when her vision returns, she's looking out the window of the bus, stuck in traffic, and out from the nearby hospital runs a frantic patient covered in blood.

 _Oh, no! Not again… Why is this happening to me? Why am I here again?_

Max pulls out her phone to check the display. _September 26? Is this Thursday? That's only two days away!_

Max hears the screams from outside as chaos ensues.

"Max?"

Max is unable to look away as the horror unfolds once again.

"Max!"

Ellie's hand touches Max's shoulder and it jolts her back from her vision, knocking her bag off the bench and onto the ground.

"Ellie! You're here! I'm back. Oh, my lord, this is real-it's real! Oh, man, this sucks…"

"Max, what's going on? You totally blacked out."

"I didn't black out… I had another vision." Max shakes her head and affirms she really is back. "This is going to sound crazy, but there were people, and they were attacking other people and… and… eating them!"

Ellie's eyes widen. Infected. Now it's getting back to reality, she thinks.

"I had this same vision yesterday in class… And what's even more crazy is I discovered I could reverse time."

Ellie sighs and rolls her eyes. "Okay, ha ha, you had me at people eating people, but reversing time? Really, Max?"

"Listen to me, how do you think I saved you from becoming roadkill yesterday?"

"By reversing time? Yeah, sure."

"I saw you get hit, Ellie. Saw you actually… die. I was able to go back and stop you from walking into the street."

"Okay, I see you're a geek now with a great imagination, but this isn't a movie or comic book; people don't have those powers, Max."

"I don't know what I have, but I have it. And I'm scared shitless. What I saw… It happens on Thursday."

"How do you know that?"

"In my vision, I looked at my phone. It said September 26th."

 _That's Joel's birthday!_ _That's when Sarah… the outbreak…_ Ellie's mind races until her eyes drift down to the spilled contents of Max's bag. There on the ground is the photo of the lighthouse, the very same one she had found just yesterday, except this photo is in pristine condition and far from deteriorating. And next to the photo, peeking out from Max's bag is the black, sticker-covered notebook she had also found, except undamaged. But what really blows Ellie's mind is the Arcadia Bay Beacon newspaper also sticking out of the bag. The date on the newspaper says September 24, 2013.

Maybe this really isn't a dream, but if this isn't a dream, then how the fuck could she have traveled back in time? Maybe she's the one going crazy.

Ellie slowly brings her eyes back up to Max, who's taken on the appearance of someone who just got off a bad trip. _No way. No fucking way._

"Hey, maybe we should head back to town. You look like you could use some food," suggests Ellie.

Max nods silently and gathers her things.

The bus ride back to town is quiet as both girls are preoccupied with their own thoughts, except for when Max tells Ellie they've arrived at their stop. It's not crowded, but for a small town there are plenty of people walking about. Max leads Ellie to Anthony's Pizza & Subs, one of the small restaurants lining the street. Upon entering, Ellie cannot believe her eyes and for a moment forgets all about her strange circumstances. Suddenly Max finds herself alone at the counter. She looks around confused and there's Ellie, standing hypnotized by the demo playing on one of the arcade machines. Max quickly orders slices of pizza for both of them then joins Ellie.

"The Turning?" Max reads the title on the arcade aloud.

"My best friend knew everything about this game," Ellie says. "I never got to play though. The one back home was busted."

Max digs out a few quarters from her pocket and inserts them into the machine. "Now you can."

Ellie's face lights up with pure excitement and she grabs hold of the joystick. "Holy shit! This is actually happening! You're the best, Max!"

The title screen gives way to the character selection screen and Ellie immediately chooses the claw-wielding Angel Knives. The screen fades out, then reveals Angel Knives standing on the edge of a temple, just like Riley had once told her. Her opponent, Black Fang, steps out of the temple. Just as Riley described him, he's this super ripped white dude with three arms. The music kicks up as the characters get into their fighting stance and round 1 begins. Ellie mashes the punch, kick, and block buttons while maneuvering Angel Knives around Blackfang and Max watches. The fight intensifies as Blackfang's health bar steadily decreases and with victory in sight, Ellie eagerly executes Angel Knives' special move. Unfortunately, it misses as Blackfang's attack moves him out of harm's way. Blackfang catches Angel Knives in a vulnerable position and deals the game-ending blow.

"No! What the fuck was that?" Ellie groans as YOU LOSE glares at her from the screen.

Max knows exactly what to do. She rewinds.

Ellie is about to execute Angel Knives' special move again, but Max knows what's going to happen. "Block," she says.

"I got this, he's almost dead," Ellie says dismissively.

"Just trust me."

Blackfang rushes towards Angel Knives but Ellie misses the block and Blackfang grabs her.

"Shit!"

Ellie rapidly mashes the punch button to break free and quickly performs a Blade Charge. This time she successfully blocks Blackfang's next attack, causing him to stagger back a few steps. Now Ellie executes Angel Knives' special move and it lands cleanly on Blackfang. The screen turns dark. Angel Knives' blades begin to glow. She pierces Black Fang's torso again and again until his heart flies right out of his chest. She winds back her leg and roundhouses his head clean off. A geyser of blood covers the entire playing field. "Ultra Kill," the game announces. Angel Knives throws her fists in the air and YOU WIN appears on the screen.

"Fuck yeah. I win," Ellie says, throwing her firsts in the air as well.

"Nice moves, Ellie."

"Thanks, Max. That was so awesome. I owe you big time."

Max shakes her head. "You act like you've never played video games before. It's no big deal."

The weight of the situation returns to Ellie and she fixes her eyes on Max. "How did you know the attack was coming?"

"I may have used my powers," Max replies.

"Thirteen!" the guy at the counter calls out, dishing out slices of pizza onto two plates on a tray.

"That's us. Come on, let's eat," Max says.

They settle into a booth by the window and Ellie bites into her pizza. The tomato sauce oozes out from under the layer of cheese and pepperoni and lands on the space between her thumb and forefinger. Instead of immediately wiping her hand clean, Ellie lingers on the sight. The sauce is the same color as the blood that seeped through the bite Riley sustained on the exact same spot.

" _There are a million ways we should've died before today. And a million ways we can die before tomorrow. But we fight… for every second we get to spend with each other. Whether it's two minutes… Or two days… We don't give that up. I don't want to give that up. My vote… Let's just wait it out. You know we can… be all poetic and just lose our minds together."_

That's what Riley had said when they discovered they had both been bitten by Infected, so they stayed together as long as they could. Riley was the first to show symptoms and Ellie waited to follow suit. But then Riley died, and Ellie still waited. And waited. And waited. And she's still waiting for her turn. Not a day goes by that Ellie doesn't miss Riley.

Ellie wipes the sauce off her hand and finishes her pizza. She watches Max and wonders if maybe it was Max's powers that brought her back in time. The lighthouse photo, the journal, Max's visions, the date on the newspaper - it's too much of a coincidence to ignore. What if she could stop the outbreak? No, there's no way she could do that, but there has to be a reason why she went back in time.

"I want proof you can rewind time," Ellie says, "so I will believe you without any doubt."

Max swallows her last bite of pizza and says, "Mm… I can tell you what's in your back pocket."

"Okay, Max, impress me!"

Max really doesn't know what Ellie has in her pocket, but hopefully her time-reversing powers can lend a hand. For now she has to take a wild guess, and it's something most people typically keep in their pockets. "Keys."

Ellie reaches behind and pulls her switchblade out of her pocket. "That was so… wrong, Max," she says unamused and disappointed.

"Whoa, is that, like, standard military issue or something?"

"It was my mom's. I don't go anywhere without it."

 _Powers don't fail me now,_ Max thinks and rewinds.

"Okay, Max, impress me!" says Ellie, again.

"You have a knife in your pocket. It belonged to your mom, and you don't go anywhere without it."

Ellie stares at Max wide-eyed as chills run all over her neck. "How did you know that?"

"This isn't my first guess," Max confesses.

"Okay," Ellie nods, "I believe you." Ellie pauses, giving herself one last chance to back out, then says, "Max, I have to tell you… Something."

"Talk to me, Ellie."

"Your visions… What you saw, it actually happens."

"How do you know?"

Ellie can't believe she's going through with this, but she takes a deep breath anyway and says, "I'm from the future."

Max frowns. "Are you cereal? I tell you I can rewind time and you fuck with me by talking about you're from the future?"

"Hey, you don't get to look at me like I'm crazy when you're over there blacking out from visions and rewinding time and calling me cereal! Besides, I have proof!" Ellie unzips her backpack and pulls out her future version of Max's journal. "Recognize this?"

Max gawks at her journal, then checks her bag to make sure she has her own.

Ellie flips the time-worn journal to the back. "Look, and here are your photos." She picks out the lighthouse photo. "You just took this one today."

Max can't believe what she's seeing, but it is indeed the very photo she took earlier. "What… happened?"

"The CBI outbreak."

"CBI?"

"Cordyceps brain infection. Some kind of fungus that turns you into a mutant killer cannibal if you inhale the spores or if you get bit by someone who's infected. The outbreak occurred before I was born so I really don't know what happened. It's pretty much been survival of the fittest since then."

Max examines the pages of her future journal. "How did you get this?"

"I was hunting with a friend when we found the dorm. It was completely abandoned."

Max shudders at the thought of her vision becoming reality and genuinely feels scared for her life.

"There's one other thing," Ellie says and she lays her forearm on the table. "I'm immune."

Beneath Ellie's tattoo, Max notices for the first time that there are faint scars in the shape of a bite. "You were bit. You and your best friend."

Ellie nods.

"So I can rewind time, you're from the future… what does this all mean?"

Ellie shrugs. "I have no idea. I don't even know how I traveled through time."

"And I don't even know how I got these powers to rewind time. What's the last thing you remember?"

"My friend and I got caught in a storm. I saw the lighthouse and thought we could wait the storm out inside. There's nothing after that, and next thing I know I woke up in the lighthouse, and I noticed everything looked different… newer."

"There was a storm yesterday morning. Maybe the storm created a wormhole?"

Ellie raises an eyebrow. "Like an actual time-traveling, alternate universe wormhole?"

Embarrassment covers Max's face when she realizes how far fetched she sounds. "Forget it, sorry. Too many sci-fi movies."

"No, I love sci-fi!" Ellie exclaims with a little too much glee, and now she feels her own face getting flush with embarrassment. "But seriously, at this point anything's possible. That might explain how in this timeline, I am a student at Blackwell."

"And it explains why you don't know what Facebook is," Max teases.

Ellie shrugs with half a smile. "I don't know what the big deal is about a book of faces."

"It's not really a book-" Max starts, then remembers Ellie saying something about being off the grid, which makes even more sense now. "But yeah, you're probably right. It is kinda stupid actually."

Their conversation falls to a hush. Ellie rubs her nose nervously to stop herself from staring at Max too long and turns to the world outside the pizza place. Across the street, a building is undergoing construction. A group of men are securing their equipment onto a truck, oblivious as everyone else about what's going to happen. Nobody will see the outbreak coming till it hits them, and everything will change in an instant. The infection will kill the ones you care for, people will kill the ones you care for, and the only thing you can do is keep finding something to fight for.

Max follows Ellie's gaze out the window as well, but only to sneak back to Ellie. The sun highlights the red in Ellie's auburn hair, giving her a coppery glow that compliments her green eyes, eyes which never lose focus. Since Max ran into Ellie (pun intended), Ellie has always been alert, observant, and filled with wonder. She'd love to take more photos of Ellie. Perhaps she's her Everyday Hero. Or perhaps she's something more. She's drawn to Ellie, whether by their strange twist of fate or by plain, simple attraction.

"Hey, um…" Max begins.

Ellie turns to face Max once again.

"Wanna see a movie?" Max manages to spit out. She doesn't even know why it was so hard to ask, but she guesses this is how Warren must've felt.

"Really?" Ellie tries hard to hold back a grin. "I mean, I thought you said you don't think you can concentrate on going out to movies."

"That was just an excuse not to go out with Warren, but I do actually feel like escaping."

"Hell yeah, I've never been to a movie theater," Ellie says, suddenly feeling shy.

" _Dawn of the Wolf_ just came out. Everyone's talking about it."

Ellie remembers seeing _Dawn of the Wolf_ posters and billboards everywhere when she and Joel were in Pittsburgh. She had thought it was a horror film and imagined the wolfman gutting the starring actress, but Joel told her nobody gets gutted and that it was a dumb teen movie, much to Ellie's disappointment.

"My first movie on the big screen and you wanna drag me to a dumb teen movie?"

Max rewinds. It's amazing how she's managed to survive life this long without being able to undo her fuck-ups. Of course Ellie isn't into _Dawn of the Wolf_. She just said she loves sci-fi.

"Let's go see _Savage Starlight_."

"Seriously? I love _Savage Starlight_!" Ellie can't hold her grin back anymore, and before she can stop herself, she says, "You sure know the way to a girl's heart."

Without missing a beat, Max says, "Not just any girl's heart, your heart."

Ellie's heartbeat spikes through the roof, but she maintains her composure and tells herself this is just silly banter. "You asking me out on a date?" she asks with a smirk.

"Maybe," Max replies with an air of mystery, but finds herself surprised she hasn't rewound yet. For once, she actually feels good about her actions and maybe, just maybe, this could be a date.

The loud rumbling of an engine from outside interrupts the girls' repartee as the truck across the street starts up and departs, exposing an alley between the buildings where a red SUV is parked.

"Hey, it's that SUV from yesterday!" Ellie says, jumping from her seat. "Come on, Max."

Before Max can say anything, Ellie grabs her backpack, dumps her trash, and rushes out the door. Max hurries after her and catches up to Ellie as she's crossing the street. Upon reaching the other side, Ellie reaches under the construction caution tape and grabs a brick.

"Ellie, what are you gonna do with that?" Max asks, but considering Ellie's don't-give-a-fuck attitude, she has a feeling she already knows the answer.

"Just cover me," Ellie says.

"Cover you?"

"Be on the lookout. Make sure nobody is walking by. I'll be right back."

Max stands at the corner, looking both ways down the sidewalk, as Ellie disappears down the alley. If they get caught, they'd be in so much trouble, but the risk was admittedly exciting. And Max could always rewind.

A crash of broken glass confirms Max's suspicion.

"Boosh! Brick. Fucking. Master!" Ellie cries out.


End file.
